Geoffrey Austin Lester was born October 22, 1930 in Kiukiang (Jiujiang), China where his father worked for Royal Dutch Shell. Mr. Lester lived in several cities in China before being caught in Manila during World War 2 and interned at a Japanese civilian camp in Manila. In 1943, he was repatriated to Canada. From 1949-1952, Mr. Lester served in the Royal Canadian Engineers. From 1952-1954, he studied at Victoria College before transferring to the University of British Columbia, graduating with a B.A. (History, English) in 1956. After studying at Union Theological College from 1956-1959, Mr. Lester was ordained as a minister of the United Church of Canada. From 1959-1963, he worked as a minister in Southern Manitoba before entering the University of Alberta to study geography. Mr. Lester received his M. A. in 1966. Upon graduation from the U. of A., Mr. Lester obtained employment as a cartographer at the Rand McNally Publishing Company in Chicago, Illinois. In 1967, Mr. Lester was hired by the University of Ottawa as a cartographer in the geography department. In 1969, he returned to the University of Alberta as the supervising cartographer of the Department of Geography. Mr. Lester retired from the university in 1995. Mr. Lester is the compiler of <i>An Historical Atlas of Railways in Alberta</i>, a compilation of Alberta maps due to be published in 2003 by the University of Alberta Press.